Kansas Department of Ag and K-State Extension offer morel mushroom identification session

The Kansas Department of Agriculture and K-State Research and Extension are offering two sessions to help people earn the necessary approval to sell wild morel mushrooms. The sessions will take place during Farmers’ Market Regional Workshops in Olathe on Feb. 9 and Chanute on Feb. 10. The Olathe workshop will take place at K-State Olathe at 22201 W. Innovation Drive in Olathe. The Chanute workshop will be held at Mid-West Fertilizer at the Chanute Agronomy Center, 3030 S. Santa Fe Ave. in Chanute. Onsite registration for both events will open at 8:30 a.m. with workshops beginning at 9:00 a.m. and concluding by 3:00 p.m.

Registration for the workshops is now open and is $20 per participant. Registration includes lunch; however, lunch will only be guaranteed to those participants who register by Feb. 1.

The morel identification session is intended to help ensure that wild harvested mushrooms sold as morels in the state of Kansas are safe to consume. Current regulations under KDA’s food safety and lodging program require that mushrooms picked in the wild for sale must be individually inspected for safety by an approved mushroom identifier. Upon completion of this workshop, participants will be recognized as approved morel identifiers in order to meet this regulation. However, attendance at this workshop is not required to be added to the identifier registry.

Registration forms for the workshops can be found at FromtheLandofKansas.com/FMWorkshop or at local extension offices.

For more information, please contact Londa Nwadike with K-State Research and Extension, at 913-307-7391 or [email protected].